Electrical connectors are provided in many different varieties for numerous applications. In the computer and microelectronics industry, electrical connectors may be provided in two separate portions designed to mate with each other. There is an incentive in the industry to provide smaller connectors. Connectors may be employed to electrically join conductive traces from one circuit board to another. Such a connector may provide a grid or array of connection points on opposite surfaces. A two-part connector may be electrically mated on a mating surface and then meshed to conductive traces of the circuit board on opposite mounting surfaces.
Ball grid array connectors typically use solder portions known as “solder balls” on the ends of contact elements. Solder balls may be positioned and then reflowed upon a contact, thereby providing the connector with an electrical pathway to a conductive trace or circuit board. When a solder ball or an array of balls are placed against a circuit board, the solder ball may be heated and reflowed to melt the balls upon a pre-existing conductive trace on the board, resulting in a secure soldered electrical connection. Many different types of ball grid array connectors are known.
Ball grid array connectors may be soldered upon circuit board traces, thereby forming an electrical circuit. In the past, it has been common for manufacturers of such connectors to ship manufactured connectors to a company or person responsible for assembly of the connectors upon circuit boards. Then, connectors may be picked up by hand and placed upon the board for soldering or heating.
In other applications, manufacturers have increased the speed of manufacturing operations by employing vacuum air suction in a robotic “pick and place” operation, to automatically pick up and place connectors upon a board at a predetermined location. However, one difficulty with employing such pick and place techniques in the placement of electrical connector arrays of the type disclosed herein is that the lack of a solid, flat, air impermeable outer housing structure sometimes makes it impossible to employ such techniques. That is, it is necessary for the connector array to present a flat, air impermeable surface in order that vacuum pickup apparatus will securely hold the array. An air permeable or non-planar surface is not amenable to such manufacturing techniques.
It would be desirable to provide an improved apparatus and method for retaining, holding, and precisely placing connector arrays upon a circuit board or other electrical interface.